Iran ready to help stop war in Yemen under peace plan: FM

Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says the country is prepared to help stop the military campaign against Yemen based on Tehran’s four-point peace plan submitted to the UN given the ongoing sensitive situation in the region.

“In line with its four-point [peace] plan, the Islamic Republic of Iran is ready to provide any necessary help in order to stop the military operation and start a dialog among all Yemeni sides,” Zarif said in a telephone conversation with Omani Foreign Minister Youssef bin Alawi bin Abdullah.

The Iranian and Omani ministers exchanged views on the latest developments in the region and ways to improve mutual relations.

Zarif and bin Alawi urged an immediate dispatch of humanitarian aid such as food and medicine to the Yemeni people.

In a letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Friday, the Iranian foreign minister submitted a four-point peace plan on Yemen in an attempt to end the bloodshed in the impoverished Arab country.

A picture taken on April 17, 2015 shows people walking past buildings that were damaged the day before in an airstrike by Saudi Arabia at a market in the port city of Aden’s Dar Saad suburb. © AFP

The plan calls on the international community to take the necessary measures to stop the Saudi airstrikes against the Yemeni people, which have claimed more than 2,600 lives so far.

“It is imperative for the international community to get more effectively involved in ending the senseless aerial attacks and establishing a ceasefire,” said the Iranian minister.

Saudi Arabia’s air campaign against Yemen started on March 26, without a United Nations mandate, in a bid to restore power to the country’s fugitive former president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, a staunch ally of Riyadh.